


Paintball

by FalconHorus



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: F/F, Paintball
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2018-02-21 16:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2475539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FalconHorus/pseuds/FalconHorus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little game of Capture The Flag gives the ladies a chance at kicking some butt...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paintball

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kisahawklin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/gifts).



> Written for: Femslash Exchange 2014  
> Beta: Amara d'Angeli

There was a soft breeze blowing through the leaves above. There was plenty of coverage keeping the sun’s hot rays from reaching the ground. However, the warmth already present had nowhere to go either. Elizabeth wiped the sweat from her forehead, where her helmet was touching skin. She stretched her legs behind her a little and continued looking out for enemy movement. She’d been lying there underneath the shrubbery for the better part of half a day. Her muscles were beginning to ache but she wasn’t planning on leaving her watch and disappoint her team. They had too much at stake, trying to beat the men’s team, who were most likely also being cautious and strategizing on winning the game.

A rustling sound caught her ears and she turned, just in time to find a familiar blond head crawling towards her. Elizabeth noticed the big grin which was fixed on the lieutenant’s face and wondered what was going on behind it.

“We’re good,” Laura dropped down by Elizabeth’s side.

“Good?” Elizabeth tilted her head, “Good how?”

“Well,” Laura pulled her bottle of water free and took several gulps before she continued, “Katie and Miko have eyes on our base, and I send Kate and Teyla hunting.”

“You sent Kate hunting? But she already got into Carson’s crosshairs once.”

Laura nodded, “She’s still got two lives left.”

Their first recon hadn’t gone as smooth as they had hoped, but seeing the yellow paintball go splat on Kate’s chest plate had been more than hilarious enough to forget about that small failure. Especially the look on her face had been priceless, surprise and shock all combined into one. Due to the well-aimed shot, she was, however, running around with yellow spots of paint on her face which Laura had suggested covering up with some green, to blend in with the surroundings. This had been received which such a powerful glare, Laura had turned with a _never mind_ and had left Kate behind to deal with her paint issue. Then again, Kate had not chosen voluntarily to join the team. They had been one woman short and when Elizabeth had asked around Laura had put Kate’s name down without consulting the psychologist first whether she’d be okay to go gallivanting through the forests of New Athos, chasing down a flag. It was quite obvious Laura would have a thing or two coming when they returned to Atlantis.

Elizabeth mumbled, not convinced sending Kate, with one life down, on a hunting trip with Teyla. She had faith in her girlfriend to keep Kate from losing all her lives, but they couldn’t afford to lose a member of their team. Nevertheless, she did want to show the men that the ladies of Atlantis were a force to be reckoned with, even with the rules slightly bent to allow for three lives to each player instead of the usual one.

Elizabeth’s radio crackled with two short clicks, a three-count silence followed by two more clicks. The signal they had agreed upon to warn for incoming trouble if such should arise. She turned to Laura to mention the possible trouble ahead, but the lieutenant had already crawled back from where she had appeared from earlier. Moments later she spotted two hunched figures making their way towards the ladies’ base camp. She recognized Carson, who had been adamant about keeping his Scottish flag, and Radek right at his side. She managed to suppress a snort when she noticed his backside was covered in pink paint, the signature color Miko had chosen for their team, the Pink Ladies. It seemed someone had gotten a shot in earlier, maybe Teyla and Kate had been lucky during their hunt after all.

There was a soft popping sound from her left, followed by a yelp and a cry out to retreat to safer grounds. Carson’s lower backside was covered in a darkish pink. There was no body armor covering that bit of his anatomy and she was sure there would be bruises later. It would give Rodney a chance, at least, to get back at his friend for all those times he had made comments when Rodney got shot by an arrow in his gluteus maximus.

For several long minutes, after the initial attempt at gaining information on their flag, nothing happened and Elizabeth was starting to regret volunteering to lay underneath the shrubbery waiting for something to happen. But it was all part of the plan, or so Teyla had assured her.  
Then there was movement again, and next thing she knew Kate materialized by her side, still covered in yellow paint although there had been an attempt to get some of it off her face.

“Teyla and Laura are setting the last charges now,” Kate said without even blinking an eye.

“Miko and Katie?”

Last thing Elizabeth remembered they had been left to guard the base camp, but she had no idea whether they were still on their posts, or whether Laura had ordered them to a different position.

“Guarding the left flank.”

Elizabeth frowned.

“What?”

Kate tilted her head.

“You’re starting to sound like Laura.”

“Really?”

Elizabeth nodded.

“Well,” Kate continued, smiling, “Time to blow something up then.”

Elizabeth started laughing, realizing a little too late it could give away their position, and promptly clasped her hand in front of her mouth.

“Sorry,” she apologized

Her radio crackling to life interrupted them.

“ _The Colonel’s team is on the move. Return to base. I repeat, return to base._ ”

There was a slight hint of mischief in the lieutenant’s voice, and Elizabeth realized she wouldn’t want to be in the men’s shoes right about now. Laura had mentioned earlier, at the start of the game, she had a spectacular finale planned. She was clearly quite confident they were going to win the game. Elizabeth hoped that confidence wasn’t going to be misplaced somehow.

She motioned Kate to follow her, and together they crawled from underneath the shrubbery and hurried back towards their base camp a few hundred meters south of their position. Once there, Teyla caught up with them and guided them further away towards a ditch, half covered by leaves and branches.

When Laura rolled into the ditch not much later, she was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

“Did you get it?”

She turned to Teyla who nodded, producing the yellow banner John had claimed as their designated flag.

“Wait,” Elizabeth interrupted, “When did you capture their flag?”

“Remember when I said Kate and Teyla went hunting…”

Elizabeth nodded.

“What I actually meant was that Teyla went hunting and Kate went on a distraction-spree.”

“Duck and cover!” Kate grinned, “Over and over again.”

“Down two lives though,” Teyla pointed at the hem of Kate’s trousers, where another yellow stain was visible.

“Rodney’s work of art.”

“Are you telling me it was _that_ easy to capture their flag?” Elizabeth said surprised. “I thought you said Major Lorne and Ronon were guarding their base camp.”

Laura nodded, “I didn’t say it was easy.”

“You cheated!”

“No, we didn’t.” Teyla and Laura said at the same time, shaking their heads.

Elizabeth gave them both a pointed stare instead.

Teyla dropped her hand on her shoulder, squeezing it a little.

“Trust me,” she smiled, “We did not cheat.”

Elizabeth mumbled an okay, wondering what exactly Teyla had done to capture the flag from underneath Ronon and Major Lorne’s nose. Both men were trained soldiers and would have caught the Athosian warrior in the blink of an eye, especially Ronon wouldn’t have let her pass without a fight. Fair to say, Teyla wasn’t to be underestimated either, but something told her there was something else they weren’t telling her. Elizabeth was determined to found out later when she was alone with her Athosian and she’d kiss her in just the right places, _then_ she would know.

The radio clicked again, and Laura poked her head above the leaves.

“They’re here.”

“Who?”

Elizabeth stretched as far as she dared to go.

“I can see the Colonel, McKay, Carson and Radek.”

“What about Major Lorne and Ronon? Where are they?”

“Unavailable,” Kate stated with such a straight face that Elizabeth’s suspicion grew just that little bit more.

“Unavailable?”

“Perhaps, it would be better not to ask,” Teyla suggested carefully.

“You know what, I think I’d rather not know. The less I know, the better.”

Laura dropped back underneath the leaves, lifted them up so she could spy from underneath and motioned the others to follow her lead. Elizabeth frowned when she saw how the lieutenant pulled four detonators from her pockets and handed them out.

“On my mark…”

Laura pointed at the switch on the detonator. At once, Elizabeth remembered the charges Kate had spoken of earlier.

“Paintbombs!?”

“Shush! You’re giving us away.”

The radio clicked again, three times followed by a silence and three more clicks.

“Mark!”

Elizabeth ducked as all four of them flicked the switches on their detonators. In the distance, nearer to their base camp, explosions could be heard, followed by yelling and someone screaming very unmanly like. Then there was a short silence, followed by the strongest curse Elizabeth had ever heard coming from John’s mouth. When she turned to her left where Laura was hiding, she could see the lieutenant was shaking with laughter, which she found mirrored in both Teyla and Kate.

“LIEUTENANT CADMAN!!!”

Elizabeth gasped when she finally saw John appear in sight, covered in pink paint. It was dripping down his helmet, down his goggles and all the way down to his feet. It was everywhere. They emerged from hiding and at the sight of the men covered in pink, the laughter just turned up a notch. She bit her lip but the sight was just too much to not laugh, which caused the glare on the colonel’s face to grow in size.

“Did we win?”

Miko and Katie appeared from behind the men, panting from running towards the rest of their team.

“We did,” Teyla produced the men’s flag and waved it in the air.

“How did you get that?”

John looked surprised, promptly hitting his radio to find out how Ronon and Evan had not been able to hold onto their flag. But instead the duo showed up, unscathed and paint-free.

“Yes, _how_ did you get it?”

Elizabeth couldn’t wait until later that evening to kiss the truth out of Teyla.

“They made us an offer we couldn’t refuse,” Ronon smirked.

“Treason.” Rodney huffed.

“Self-preservation, you mean.” Evan grinned. “We’d rather have Doctor Weir on our side, than against us.”

Elizabeth shook her head, chuckling.

“They do have a fair point Colonel,” She said teasingly. It did nothing to improve John’s mood.

“And where is your flag?”

Radek was rubbing at the paint, making it worse rather than getting it off.

“Yeah, we didn’t see it at your camp.”

“It wasn’t there,” Kate smiled, producing their pink flag from inside her vest.

“I knew we couldn’t trust them,” Rodney whined, making John sigh. “I knew it.”

He too was trying to get the paint off his hands and face, and like Radek he was just making it worse.

“Don’t worry, Rodney,” Laura grinned, noticing how he was desperately trying to clean himself up a bit, “it’ll come off … in a day or two.”

“Well played,” John nodded, “Well played!”

“Thank you,” Elizabeth smiled, knowing it would be a while if ever before anyone in Atlantis would give up teasing or making well aimed comments about his loss in the game. Especially the paint would stick a while longer, much to anyone but the colonel and his team’s amusement.


End file.
